The Church of our time has been called to travel on a journey to become more synodal. How will we make that journey? Where are our maps? “In the great journey of life,” Pope Francis said in his homily on the feast of Pentecost, “the Spirit teaches us where to begin, what paths to take and how to walk. ‘The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of everything I had told you.’ (John 14:26)”
Where to begin
We need to begin, he said, as the Spirit points out to us, with love. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” That love is a gift from the Spirit of Jesus, who teaches us how to love and who constantly rekindles the love of God in our hearts. This is the starting point for our journey. We tend to remember the things that go wrong; we tend to criticise ourselves and each other for our failings and disappointments, but the Holy Spirit “tells us something completely different”: you are a child of God. You are unique, chosen, precious and beloved. You might forget about God, but God never forgets you. The Spirit of Jesus comforts us with the memory of God’s loving gaze. The Pope reminded us of the failures of Peter who denied Jesus, of the Apostles who deserted him and Paul who had persecuted Christians. As they were forgiven, so too the Spirit teaches us to accept one another, to forgive one another and to forgive ourselves; to be reconciled with the past, to let past hurts go, and to start out anew on our journey.
What paths should we take
As well as teaching how to begin, the Pope said, the Spirit also teaches us what paths we should take. The Spirit is our Google-guide on the journey forward. At each crossroad, we need to listen so that we can recognise the voice of the Spirit, even if that voice comes from an unexpected direction. The Spirit of God, the Pope said, “takes you by the hand, comforts you and constantly encourages you…Bitterness, pessimism, sad thoughts, these never come from the Holy Spirit…The Holy Spirit brings you goodness; and leads you to rejoice in the success of others.”
The Holy Spirit is practical, added the Pope. The here and now, that is, Australia, Western Sydney and the Blue Mountains, the Diocese of Parramatta, each individual parish in 2023, are the places and times of grace. The Spirit leads us now, in these places, these times. The Holy Spirit leads us to love concretely here and now, not in an ideal world or an ideal Church.
How should we walk
At Pentecost, the disciples were huddled together in the Upper Room. The Spirit disturbed them. The Spirit prodded them to open themselves up to all people, people whose language they could not speak, people who were strangers. The Spirit challenged the disciples to go out and tell people about Jesus, about the Gospel. It would have been unsettling and chaotic, everyone talking in different languages. Yet, the Spirit brought harmony.
Pope Francis reminded us that when God created the heavens and earth, and the earth was formless and empty, with darkness over everything, it was the Spirit’s action that made created things pass from formlessness and darkness to light, from disorder to order, from dispersion to cohesion, from confusion to harmony. “When you send forth your Spirit, they are created,” we pray in Psalm 104.
So, too, amidst the chaos and confusion of the first Pentecost, the Spirit brought harmony. The Spirit does not remove the diversity of gifts, the differences between us, because they are the richness of our Church: but the Spirit brings harmony into the rich diversity of many people. This is the way of synodality which we are now being called to walk, the paths of witness, poverty and mission, set free from ourselves and sent forth into the world.
Dr Anne Benjamin is a writer, educator and a parishioner of St Anthony of Padua Parish, Toongabbie. She is on the Writing Committee for the Diocesan Synod and is a former Executive Director of Catholic Schools Parramatta Diocese (formerly Catholic Education Diocese of Parramatta).
